1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a clamping assembly for a measuring instrument, especially, a clamping assembly to install a probe such as scriber, touch signal probe or jaw to a measuring instrument such as height gage or caliper.
2. Description of the Related Art
When a probe such as a scriber 55 used in a scribing or measuring procedure is installed to a measuring instrument such as the height gage as shown in FIG. 8, a jaw 53 has previously been secured to a slide 52 which was vertically slidably movable along main scale 51 of the height gage so that the jaw 53 and scriber 55 were interlocked to each other by a box-type scriber clamp 54 and a a fixing screw 56.
However, in such a conventional clamping assembly, the use of the fixing screw 56 with a larger diameter is restricted due to the limitation of the appearance and production. The fastening force which occurs at a tip of the fixing screw 56 by verging the jaw 53 is rather small, so that fixation of the scriber 55 tends to be insufficient.
Because the fixing screw 56 is fastened with a fingertip, it is not easy to operate and difficult to force power. In the worst case, severe damage to the thread of fixing screw 56 was observed. Moreover, the fixing screw 56 can easily be lost since it is removed every time the scriber 55 is installed or removed, thus there is a problem with maintenance. The external appearance of the fixing screw 56 on the scriber clamp 54 was not preferable in view of the design. As has been mentioned, the presence of several problems in the conventional clamping assembly which uses the fixing screw 56 therein are admitted.
Incidentally, in a caliper which uses a jaw as the probe, a similar interlocking situation to the above-explained height gage was employed, too. In a known assembly, the jaw is mounted on the caliper body by means of a clamp and the fixing screw, which is the same as in the height gauge. Another assembly has already been proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 63-165702, wherein the jaw was directly secured to the caliper body with the fixing screw. However, the same problems as in the height gage, such as an unstable clamp and a missing of the fixing screw have taken place. The purpose of this invention is to provide a preferable clamping assembly which can secure a probe such as the scriber with greater fastening force and is easy to operate and control with an excellent appearance.